Ghosts I–IV

From NinWiki

Ghosts I–IV (also known as Halo 26) is the seventh studio album from Nine Inch Nails, released March 2, 2008 over the internet, without prior information being released, and released April 8, 2008 in stores worldwide. It was the first NIN material to be independently released since leaving Interscope Records in 2007. The album is a four-volume, 2-disc release consisting of 36 instrumental tracks, featuring guest musicians. It is the most collaborative NIN album to date, with heavily shared songwriting and performance credits.

Deluxe and limited edition versions were sold through nin.com. Initial response was very positive, with heavy traffic causing servers to crash and all limited edition copies being sold in just over a day. Reznor confirmed on May 6, 2010, during the HTDA Q&A, that more Ghosts volumes are to come, most likely featuring the Swarmatron that was present during the How To Destroy Angels recording.

Extra Material

Multitracks for two extra songs, "37 Ghosts" and "38 Ghosts", were found on the data disc that came as part of the deluxe and limited edition releases. "38 Ghosts" is very simillar to "Demon Seed".

Inspiration

The official introduction page for the album reads:

"Nine Inch Nails presents Ghosts I–IV, a brand new 36 track instrumental collection available right now. Almost two hours of new music composed and recorded over an intense ten week period last fall, Ghosts I - IV sprawls Nine Inch Nails across a variety of new terrain.

Trent Reznor explains, "I've been considering and wanting to make this kind of record for years, but by its very nature it wouldn't have made sense until this point. This collection of music is the result of working from a very visual perspective - dressing imagined locations and scenarios with sound and texture; a soundtrack for daydreams. I'm very pleased with the result and the ability to present it directly to you without interference. I hope you enjoy the first four volumes of Ghosts."

"This music arrived unexpectedly as the result of an experiment. The rules were as follows: 10 weeks, no clear agenda, no overthinking, everything driven by impulse. Whatever happens during that time gets released as... something.

We began improvising and let the music decide the direction. Eyes were closed, hands played instruments and it began. Within a matter of days it became clear we were on to something, and a lot of material began appearing. What we thought could be a five song EP became much more. I invited some friends over to join in and we all enjoyed the process of collaborating on this.

The end result is a wildly varied body of music that we're able to present to the world in ways the confines of a major record label would never have allowed - from a 100% DRM-free, high-quality download, to the most luxurious physical package we've ever created.

4XLP vinyl edition, which was made available in Australia and Japan on April 5, 2008, and in the US, UK, and most of Europe on April 8, 2008. [4]

Deluxe Edition, which includes 2 CDs, a DVD-ROM of multitrack files, Blu-ray Disc of the album featuring a 96khz/24bit digital mix of the album as well as a slideshow, and hardcover 48-page booklet in a black fabric slipcase [5]

Ultra-Deluxe Limited Edition, which includes everything in the Deluxe Edition, as well as the album on a 4-part 180 gram vinyl edition and two Giclée prints. This version is limited to 2500 copies, each of which is numbered and signed by Reznor himself. Although it was initally expected that this edition would take a while to sell out, it was announced on March 4, 2008 that all 2500 copies had been sold. [6]

The Standard 2-CD edition, Deluxe Edition, and Ultra-Deluxe Limited Edition also include an immediate download of the album in the consumers' choice of format. The Deluxe Edition and Ultra-Deluxe Limited Edition were both shipped May 1, 2008.

Pricing

The pricing of the releases, as listed on ghosts.nin.com, is as follows

Digital download - $5

2-CD digipak - $10

Deluxe Edition - $75

Ultra-Deluxe Edition - $300

Note: the vinyl version was never sold on the site.

Multitracks

The multitracks for all the songs on Ghosts I–IV are included on a DVD-ROM as a part of the deluxe and ultra-deluxe editions of the album which can be ordered from ghosts.nin.com, although the latter has sold out. Additionally, multitracks for the songs "10 Ghosts II", "19 Ghosts III", "26 Ghosts III", "34 Ghosts IV" and "35 Ghosts IV" can be downloaded from remix.nin.com.

Photography

Intended as a visual aesthetic to accompany Ghosts I–IV, a 40 page PDF is included with all of the official digital releases from nin.com. Each page is dedicated to a track and serves as the album's credits. The PDF contains photography by Phillip Graybill and Rob Sheridan highlighting the recording process as well as the outside world. The Deluxe and Ultra-Deluxe Limited Edition of Ghosts I–IV feature a hardcover booklet in a fabric slipcase. When purchasing the album in MP3 or Apple Lossless formats through nin.com, each track is embedded with unique track art that differs from the photograph in the PDF. While some of the images appear to be cropped from the larger PDF, most of the images are noticeably different.

Release

Prior to the album's release photos taken in the studio and cryptic messages had been left on the front page of nin.com suggesting "secret things", however there was no mention of an actual album. Ghosts was released without prior warning when a message from Reznor appearing on nin.com announced that 'The new Nine Inch Nails record is available RIGHT NOW!' with a link to ghosts.nin.com where the album is available in various formats.

Ghosts I was uploaded to various torrent sites, most notably The Pirate Bay, with the following message included:

"Nine Inch Nails: Ghosts I (2008)

This torrent is an official upload from Nine Inch Nails.

We're very proud to present a new collection of instrumental music, Ghosts I-IV. Almost two hours of music recorded over an intense ten week period last fall, Ghosts I-IV sprawls Nine Inch Nails across a variety of new terrain.

Now that we're no longer constrained by a record label, we've decided to personally upload Ghosts I, the first of the four volumes, to various torrent sites, because we believe BitTorrent is a revolutionary digital distribution method, and we believe in finding ways to utilize new technologies instead of fighting them.

We encourage you to share the music of Ghosts I with your friends, post it on your website, play it on your podcast, use it for video projects, etc. It's licensed for all non-commercial use under Creative Commons.

Ghosts I is the first part of the 36 track collection Ghosts I-IV. Undoubtedly you'll be able to find the complete collection on the same torrent network you found this file, but if you're interested in the release, we encourage you to check it out at ghosts.nin.com, where the complete Ghosts I-IV is available directly from us in a variety of DRM-free digital formats, including FLAC lossless, for only $5. You can also order it on CD, or as a deluxe package with multitrack audio files, high definition audio on Blu-ray disc, and a large hard-bound book.

We genuinely appreciate your support, and hope you enjoy the new music. Thanks for listening."

Initial response and technical issues

On March 3, 2008, the day after the release, the following was put up in place of the Ghosts I-IV web site:

"Unfortunately, the Ghosts I–IV site is down for the next few hours for maintenance.

We quietly released this album last night without any warning, and without any press. Because we know how devoted our fans are, we planned for an overwhelming response, and expected heavy traffic. To our surprise, the traffic was more than three times what we anticipated, and has only been getting heavier throughout the day. The response has been absolutely phenomenal, and we couldn't be happier, but our servers have taken a beating, causing numerous problems with the download site. Our developers, who have been working non-stop to combat the surge of traffic, feel that taking the site down for a few hours to fix some crucial issues is the best way to get things running smoothly again. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience.

While the site is down, you can still purchase the complete Ghosts I–IV here from Amazon's MP3 store for only $5. The MP3s are high quality and DRM-free. You can also order the deluxe and limited edition packages from Artist in Residence.

If you ordered a download and have not yet been able to retrieve it or have experienced any technical difficulties with the download, your download link will work as soon as the site returns.

Thanks again for the amazing support, and your continuing patience. Watch nin.com for updates during the downtime."

Later, the following message was posted to nin.com:

"The new Nine Inch Nails record is available RIGHT NOW! (for real this time)

Sorry again about the hassle. Somebody kicked the plug out of our internets, but we're all set now.

P.S. DIGG THIS

posted by Trent Reznor at 8:00 PM pst, from hong kong."

NIN's PR firm, Nasty Little Man, announced that "barely a day after going on sale, the $300 Ultra-Deluxe Limited Edition of Nine Inch Nails’ Ghosts I-IV has completely sold out" and Ghosts I–IV was at #1 at the Amazon mp3 store. On March 12, it was reported by various sites that nin.com had amassed a first week total of 781,917
transactions (including free and paid downloads as well as orders for physical product), resulting in a take of $1,619,420 USD. [7] Reznor expressed his pleasant surprise over the response in a post on nin.com that read: "We are all amazed at the reaction for what we assumed would be a quiet curiosity in the NIN catalog. My faith in all of you has been restored - let's all go have coffee somewhere (my treat)!"

Touring

The album (as well as The Slip, which was released the same year) was supported by a tour that visited North and South America. This tour was notable for having the most ambitious production of any NIN tour up to that point, using groundbreaking lighting and video technology. The middle portion of the set, referred to as the "Ghosts" portion, utilized some of that album's unorthodox (for NIN) instrumentation such as marimba, banjo and small percussion.

Film Festival

On March 13, 2008, Reznor announced a partnership with YouTube to host a "film festival" around Ghosts, writing on nin.com:

"The concept is for you to take whatever tracks you feel inspired by from Ghosts and create what you feel should accompany them visually. You will be able to see all of the submissions, and a team of us (including me) will be sorting through them and setting aside ones we feel are exceptional. Eventually (within a couple of months?) we will present a virtual "film festival" with me and some special guests presenting selections of your work.

This isn't a contest and you don't win elaborate prizes - it's meant to be an experiment in collaboration and a chance for us to interact beyond the typical one-way artist-to-fan relationship. We've discussed some interesting ways this could go, including multiple installments of the online "film festivals," to broadcast TV specials, to a one-time live performance of the entire Ghosts record with your visuals involved. It really depends on how this progresses and develops."